Aiga Forum Blog

Siseba Lai Nachew is something one frequently encounters in Ethiopia but there is atleast one on the other side who picks up the phone.
Recently, I had to call a government Office here in the US. I have the ext. of the person I want to call. The phone is never picked up. I always get the answering machine, asking me to leave my phone number and a brief message, promising me that I will get a call back the same day or the next working day at the latest. I have been calling for two weeks with the same result and no call back. I even changed the extension I called receving an answering machine with the same response and no call back. It seems bureaucracy works the same way everywhere. After all, we did inherit modern bureacracy from them.

That is why they say a " A government that governs the least governs the best". Government is efficient when you do not have anything to do with it.

Aiga do you have nothing in your plate to propagate and you need suggestions on trash issues which can be ameliorated by assigning the right and qualified personnel at the right place according to his ability.
AFTER ALL this could not new to happen in a country what Legesse favours loyality than profession like once he tald us in public "unless someone believe in TPLF agenda i prefer illitrate than a NASA scientist for posts in my government".

What this show us is the state machinery is full of incapacitated ill concieved bunch of tyrant and are not able to brief in what they are given reponsibilty.

Besides that frankly frequent answers like this are the first born children of Communism which is the fat content of TPLF led government and do not expect from a diehard communists to be humble and effective to reply issues with out Baptism of their leader.

When some had no confidence on what he is working always need to be filled up like Pepsi from Meles/Legesse till then they are in the meeting.

I think,as we are an infant democracy, we have a long way to go,therefore the recently established communication ministry is one step forward and I say good job for the hard working EPRDfites.Eventhough it asks much money to hire desk officer in every government office,people's concern have to be adressed.I think,the gov't have an obligation to listen to its people properly. so far so good though! they will be there!

Habesha,
You are absolutely right that with some office here in the west it is worst. Like you said at least we have someone answering the phone in Ethiopia. However the west as Aiga pointed out has all the luxury to act and behave as they wish. Ethiopia on the other hand needs everything to click together so poverty can be defeated. Meeting/Sebesba is okay as long as it is used moderately. I am not saying every office holder in Ethiopia is always sitting in a meeting but what to make with the answer many get when they call in or drops in to check and gets "yelum/sebseba nachew"
In fact even the spokesperson in the recently established office told of all media’s, the VOA, that he is busy and in a meeting! And the extremist are having a field day with it coupled to with what he said in regard to the old man Bulcha!
Any ways, I think the folks back home are trying their best and there is no alarm in this regard but it will be nice if we can deny extremist and crook western media an opportunity to defame the government and the country by informing spokespersons to speak about issues their office is assigned. That is my take any ways.

Quote frankly; in my opinion, this is actually one of the biggest issues in Ethiopia; because in most cases they actually are not in a meeting. Most offices especially government offices are so inefficient and customer service is just almost non-existence (what’s contradicting about that is Ethiopians are polite people in general but when it comes to the work environment people tend to act bossy and kind of rude. In most cause they just tell you to come back another time for a single signature or its equivalent.

Inefficiency is at its best in the motherland in the private sector or the government sector. Let me give you all one of my personal experience, I went to the Commercial Bank of Ethiopia in Addis near the National Theater to trade my travelers check to Cash and once I reached the desired window, she sent me down stairs for a signature, I waited in line for a while and once I got to the lady she told me oh no go to window 5 upstairs…then to window 12…I ended up going to 7 windows and in each window you have to wait in a long line. What was so frustrating is the employees don’t really know what the other employee sitting on other winds job is, so they end up sending you to the wrong window. I was there for 40 minutes waiting in all this different lines some they just put signatures for me others told me they don’t do that on that window. It was 20 minutes to 4pm (closing time) so calculating how many people were in front of me on the line and being so unconfident about that window being the last window that I need to go, I just left wondering how many years? Decades? It is going to take us to get to the western countries level of speedy business.

So in my attempt to answer the question, obviously it would be nice to have active spokes person in every office, but I don’t think they can offered to hire all those. That would be a lot of spokes person, instead, they should train their employees thoroughly not just about specifically that employees job duties, but about the whole functionality of the organization or office in which they work in. I think we need a lot of work in efficiency, honest and upfront type of speedy work and customer service.

Dani.

P.S if anyone is up for the idea of opening: School of Efficiency and Transparency I will gladly be your business partner.

Aiga-thanks for giving us the chance to say something on this saddening case of our bureaucracy!
Yes,Ethiopia is the original home of senseless bureaucracy.Our Orwellian bureaucracy owes its origin to the imperial period.To run his regulatory regime Emperor Haile Silassie created a bureaucracy,which survived even today and has become more all pervasive.Our fabled bureaucracy remains a stumbling block to progressive change.The biggest frustration for potential investors in Ethiopia is the senseless bureaucracy.The bureaucracy is a serious drag on not just the economy but also our external image.To make matters even worse,our slow moving and officious bureaucracy has its tentacles within the Ethiopian foreign mission.Our embassy staff in foreign countries,especially at the lower level,have to be trained in the need to make business visitors and tourists feel more welcome.The embassy is the first impression of the country.The typical "Sibseba Laynachew" and "Eshi Nege..." attitude cultivated in one of the many blocks in Addis Ababa is unsuitable in London or New York or Dubai!So its time to devise a mechanism to deal with our mindless,senseless and tasteless bureaucratic network!!!

It's imposible to sign a spokes person for every department given the level of poverty in ethiopia...

Better training to all lazy government employees & private sector should be a mandatory.

Most government employees use the word "sebsaba" for thier own personal time to fart around.

The lazyness in ethiopia government offices is mind boggling.

When you go to gov.offices for simple work to be done.All you find is the "ATO COAT" hanging next to his/her window.

I think sometimes they use the back window to get out of thier office AVOID THE PUBLIC.

The hard working eprdf mandate is being undermind by mid level government employees.

The other solution for this type of problem is to creat "complaint department" so the public could be serve better.

Also the government it self should creat a UNIT that goes undercover as ordinary person to evaluate government offices.And take measures.

It's not wise to have too many spokes person for every branch of government.

Employee's must be trained well to serve the public that pay's thier salary.

But most of them seems they are only there to collect thier monthly salary.

Brother Zerhun "AIGA" as you know singapore was built by strong carying "dictator" that made his country wealthy.

He did not allowed lazy employees to get away for looking down the public.

Even the region tigray where our people are known for hard working are not imune from this nasty habit of not serving the public.

This problem can be tackle by holding the employees acountable for thier mistake & nasty treatment of the public that pays thier wage.Ofcourse the superior (boss) too.

Unless you have a dedicated government emloyees that loves the public & thier country.For sure they will dragg the development we need badly to destroy poverty for once & all out of ethiopia.

Our slogan should be.

Down to lazyness!

Down to gossip!

Down to poverty!

More power to hard working people!

More power to ethiopia!

Aiga keep up the good work.And please try to do telthon for the tigray veterans families or tdva.

I don't have any words to express my disappointment when I have been told by my parents that it takes more than two weeks to get a birth certificate from the government office. it took long for the other afairs too. this is serious problem and needs immediate attention from the leaders. Dani, I will be on your side to tuckel this kind of problems by working with the people not with the bureaucrats!! the public has a right to get a good service. they are intimidating the people with their nasty bureaucracy. supporting EPRDF is serving the public properly and efficiently. fighting coruption is nothing with out eliminating bureaucracy which is the source of every thing.

This issue, as to me, should get into all of us with the simple intent of the need for broadcasting the right information (be it good or bad) about a given office and equally important with the significance of having separate public relation desk that can speak for the office.

Yes it is true, access to information by all stakeholders is not only one of the contributing factors to growth, by means of facilitating transaction, but also it is the right of the people. Access to information serves as contributing factor to development so long as the information supplied is correct and timely. Otherwise it could have an adverse effect on subject. Citizens’ right of access to information is said to be preserved if and only if the right information is communicated when they need it.

Furthermore, it’s easier for stakeholders to get the information they need from a single point of contact like public relation desk. Besides the convenience created when people have to get information from a single point, the fact that public relation desk serving the task of information provisioning gives managers (officials) more time to focus on strategic issue.

Now, how can correct information be disseminated to all stakeholders at the right time is one of the question that should be answered and one of the possible answers to it is “by establishing public relation desk and providing sufficient training to the people serving there”. This can be practiced in our country but will it be economically feasible to set up public relation desk for every organization in the country? No it won’t. Needless to mention, the very limited wealth the nation has needed to be allocated with a very careful prioritization. So a public relation desk can and should be established for some offices and not for others.

My question to AIGA editor and all Meles' ardent followers: you guys have been saying...OLF,ONLF, ICU of Somalia, TPDM, EPPF, Southern Ethiopian liberation front, Bishangul Liberation front, Gambela liberation and so are messengers of Shabia or Issaise ..and u label Eritrea as weak and rougue nation...then my question is why not envade Issaise and march to Asmara ..why wait for ten long years! What is the truth...is it meles afaraid of messing with Issiase would be his last days in power....Befekrakum habetena emo haye eseki jemruwa!!

This is a site of/for either cowards or aimless and dumb supporters of EPRDF especially Meles. It is so sad to see an article full of disgusting lies on this site but unable to comment on it. Please, be suave and give the opposition supporters a chance to comment on your idiocy as they do for you on their sites except some.

ALL comment u can write but don't miss cool breeth deep stop for awile, think for others like u, when u are hangry and angry.Don't egnor them try yuor best,don't try to answer evrything may be don't for get i don't know.becouse they are going to trest u one day...next time with cool c u by...

There is no doubt that Meetimgs/Sibsebas should be held occasionally, as it is mainly conceived to train und inform the Employees of certain rules, regulations, further Education, etc. but unfortunatly, this Sibsebas are being missused by incapable and indeed inefficient Bunch of Employees, mainly for private purposes.
I suppose they are in the Majority, otherweis it wont possible. For people like me, who are honestly loyal to the ruling regime, and permanently tring to establish an existance in their beloved native country, such daily Experiences are extremely frustrating and to a certain extent demotivating.
It is also very sad to notice the fact, that most of this puplic servants doesn`t even realise who is paying them. They have such a minimum of intelligence to notice that a person standing infront them is paying their salary. Funny enough, the so-called secretary have no idea where her Boss is, or when he is coming to office, if at all he comes, or comes back incase he was their for few minutes and left again, certainly wede sibseba!!
I ernestly urge those whom it may concern, to eliminate such stumbling Blocks from the Society, as they are not only public enemy, but even more enemys of the Ruling party and most of all, enemys of our land.

Gudetta

It is usual to have a meeting, because it will help to act according to the rules and regulations of the company and to get a direction from the supervisor(boss). But the problem lies with those people who claim they are in the meeting but are not. I can tell you what frankly happened in one of giant office. The boss is department head, he has DS-TV channel in his office. When there is a highlight or a match he declare that as if he is in the meeting. I swear!! this is hard fact. We should take care of this type of "managers" not to hate meeting because it will not be avoided. Do not forget there is a good thing from meeting if it is properly managed.

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Thanks for this post!

Hey everyone. I'm hoping to meet new friends here so drop me a note when you
get a chance.

I hope to make some quality posts soon but first I have to look around the forum and
familiarize myself with everyone and the forum.

Bye for now. lol

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